Mechanism for feeding pads containing superimposed sheets from a magazine



Dec. 21, 1954 v THQMAS ETAL 2,697,601

MECHANISM FOR FEEDING PADS CONTAINING SUPERIMPOSED SHEETS FROM A MAGAZINE 2 Sheets-Shee l /6 Filed June 22, 1949 49 Inventors a r 4277/02 THOM/ ttorney 9812- 1954 A. THOMAS ETAL MECHANISM FOR FEEDING PADS CONTAINING SUPERIMPOSED SHEETS FROM A MAGAZINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 22, 1949 M r a m w W m M A A. I"?! L M 2 H. i f y E H5 k 4 United States Patent MECHANISM FOR FEEDING PADS CONTAINING SUPERIMPOSED SHEETS FROM A MAGAZINE Arthur Thomas, Wallington, and Alfred Herrmann Gausden, Chipstead, England, assignors to 'Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Limited, London, England, a British company Application June 22, 1949, Serial No. 100,624

Claims priority, application Great Britain June 30, 1948 6 Claims. (Cl. 271-44) This invention relates to mechanism for feeding pads containing interconnected superimposed sheets from a bottom of a pile contained in a magazine.

It is an object of the invention to provide mechanism for feeding pads from a pile contained in a magazine, e. g. from the bottom of the pile, so that only one pad is fed at a time from the magazine.

Accordingly, the invention provides mechanism for feeding pads one at a time from a pile in a magazine, comprising feed teeth to engage spaced perforations in a pad and to move the pad from the magazine, pressing elements to engage the top and bottom of a pile of pads to press together the leading edges thereof, and means operative in synchronism with the feed teeth to relieve the pressure exerted by said pressing elements when the feed teeth have engaged the perforations in a pad and to again apply the pressure when the teeth have removed the pad from the magazine.

Further, the invention provides mechanism for feeding pads from the bottom of a pile contained in a magazine and through a throat at the outlet end of the magazine, comprising a reciprocable carriage, feed teeth pivotally mounted for free movement on said carriage and counterweighted to urge the teeth to feeding position, a weight slidably mounted in juxtaposition with said throat to press together the leading edges of pads contained in the magazine, and a lifting device operative in synchronism with said carriage to engage and lift the weight when the feed teeth have been moved to pad engaging position and again to release the weight at the end of a feeding stroke of the carriage.

The lifting device comprises toothed pawls movable into and out of engagement with the teeth of racks formed on or secured to the weight. Preferably, the toothed pawls are pivoted on cam-operated pivoted bellcrank levers and are moved into engagement with the racks by the co-operation of pins extending laterally from the pawls and engaging in slots formed in arms movable with the bell-crank levers but having their initial movement retarded relative thereto.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood one embodiment thereof will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a feed mechanism for feeding pads to a tabulator or similar statistical machine.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a broken plan view, to a reduced scale, of a pad;

Fig. 2 is a section, to an enlarged scale, on line 2--2, Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section through the feeding mechanism;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the feeding mechanism, the opposite side elevation being identical;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view from the front and one side of the feeding mechanism, and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view from the rear and the same side of the mechanism.

Referring to the drawings, the feeding mechanism comprises a magazine 10 having a bottom 11 to support a pile of superimposed pads and side Walls 12, 13 to engage the sides of the pile. A front wall 14 is provided to the magazine and fitted on the front wall are two throat elements 15, Fig. 3 and Fig. 6, which control the space ice between the front wall 14 and the bottom 11 of the magazine, which comprises the outlet from the magazine through which the pads are to be fed one by one in succession.

The pads are superimposed in the magazine so that in each instance the upper sheet 16 thereof is disposed to be uppermost. By so arranging the pads the lowermost pad of the pile always presents to the bottom of the magazine the perforations 17 formed in the lowermost pad and these perforations are to 'be engaged by feed teeth 18 which are pivoted at 19 so as to be mounted for free movement on a carriage 20 slidable between the undersurface of the bottom 11 of the magazine and guide plates 263:: secured thereto. Six feed teeth 18 are provided on the carriage, one for 'co-operation with each group of superimposed perforations 17 formed in a pad to be fed, and the feed teeth, as stated above, are freely movable about their pivot 19 and are counter-weighted, as at 21, in a manner such as to urge the teeth to feeding position. Thus, as the carriage 20, which is reciprocable, is moved forwardly during the feeding stroke, the feed teeth 18 enter the perforations 17 in the lowermost pad of the pile, engage the forward end thereof and move the pad through the throatout of the magazine.

The carriage 20 is reciprocated by earns 22 secured to a spindle 23 mounted in the side frames 24, 25 of the machine and the cams 22 engage rollers 26 supported on levers 27 which are in turn connected by links 28 with the carriage 20. A spring 29 mounted between the levers 27 is attached to an arm 30 secured to the spindle 31 on which the levers 27 are fixed so as to maintain the rollers 26 carried by the levers in engagement with the earns 22. The stroke of the cams 22 is such as to move 'the carriage 20 forwardly so that the feed teeth 18 move the lowermost pad of the pile through the throat of the magazine and deliver the leading edge thereof to feed rollers 32, Fig. 5, which thereafter continue the movement of the pad and also complete the withdrawal of the pad from the pile, and deliver it to the tabulating machine. The spindle 23 and feed rollers 32 are driven by any suitable driving mechanism, not shown.

Due to the feed teeth 18 being freely pivoted on the carriage 20, when the teeth are moved into the perforations 17 formed in the lowermost pad of the pile, the feed teeth are arrested by the imperforate upper sheet 16 of the pad and are prevented thereby from passing into the perforations formed in the pad next superimposed thereon. The feed teeth 18 are formed with a cam face, as at 33, Fig. 3, which as the pad is grasped and fed by the feed rolls 32 rocks the teeth 18 out of the perforations 17 with which they are engaged and permits the pad to be fed and the carriage 20 to return to initial position.

To ensure that each pad is properly engaged by the feed teeth so as to be fed thereby a weight 34 is provided and is disposed on the top of the pile of pads contained in the magazine so as to press the marginal portions of the pads against the bottom 11 of the magazine. This weight 34 is disposed to be in juxtaposition with the throat of the magazine and to engage only the upper marginal portion of the pads, and it is mounted in vertical guides 35, 36 so as to be slidable in said guides and to rest by gravity on the superimposed pile until the feed teeth 18 have been moved to a position at which they engage the perforations 17 in the lowermost pad of the pile. At this time it is desirable to relieve the weight" on the pile in order to facilitate the feeding of the pad therefrom and to this end a rack member 37 having fine ratchet teeth 38, Fig. 4, formed thereon is secured to each of the opposite vertical ends of the weight 34. To lift the weight 34 when the lowermost pad has been engaged by the feed teeth 18 there is provided for cooperation with each of the racks 37, a toothed pawl 39 which is freely pivoted on the horizontal arm of a bellcrank 40 there being two of these bell cranks one on each side pivoted at 41 to the side frames 24, 25 of the machine. The other arm of each of the bell-crank levers carries a cam roller 43 which is engaged by a cam 44 mounted on the spindle 23 so that the weight 34 is lifted in synchronism with the movement of the carriage 20.

A pin 45 extends laterally from each of the pawls 39 and is engaged in a slot 46 formed in the end of an arm 47 which is mounted for movement with the bell-crank lever 40 about the pivot 41 therefor, but which is yieldably held in position relatively thereto by a spring friction clip 48 which retards the movement of the arm 47 so that the initial movement thereof is slightly later than that of the arm of the bell-crank lever 40 supporting the toothed pawl 39. The toothed pawl 39 is normally out of engagement with its rack 37 so that the weight 34 may rest by gravity on the pile of pads contained in the magazine. The movement of the bell-crank lever 40 in a clockwise direction will through the retarding action of lever 47 on the pin 45 rock pawl 39 in a counter-clockwise direction into engagement with the teeth 38 of the rack 37 and thereafter continued movement of the bellcrank lever 40 causes the rack 37 to be lifted so that the weight 34 secured thereto is lifted out of engagement with the pile of pads contained in the magazine. The cam 44 is so formed that after the lowermost pad has been removed from the magazine the bell crank 40 is rocked counter-clockwise by a spring 49 and again the drag of arm 47 on pin 45 will rock the pawls 39 in a clockwise direction out of engagement with the racks 37 and the weight 34, which is then released, falls due to gravity until it is again in engagement with and bearing on the pile of pads.

If desired, the weight may be provided with a handle 50 whereby it may be manually lifted between its vertical guides 35, 36 for the purpose of recharging the magazine.

What we claim is:

1. Mechanism for feeding pads from the bottom of a pile contained in a magazine and through a throat at the outlet end of a magazine, comprising a reciprocable carriage, feed teeth pivotally mounted for free movement on said carriage and counter-weighted to urge the teeth to feeding position, means for reciprocating said carriage, a weight resting on said pads slidably mounted in juxtaposition with said throat to press together the leading edges of pads contained in the magazine, a rack connecting with said weight, a lifting pawl, and means to move said pawl into engagement with said rack and to lift the weight when the feed teeth have been moved to pad engaging position and again to move said pawl out of engagement with said rack to release the weight at the end of a feeding stroke of the carriage, said carriage reciprocating means and said pawl moving means being operated synchronously from a common power source.

2. Mechanism for feeding pads from the bottom of a pile contained in a magazine and through a throat at the outlet end of said magazine, comprising a reciprocable carriage, feed teeth pivotally mounted for free movement on said carriage and counter-weighted to urge the teeth to feeding position, means for reciprocating said carriage, a weight slidably mounted in juxtaposition with said throat to press together the leading edges of pads contained in the magazine, a lifting device, and means for operating said lifting device, said two means being synchronously timed to engage and lift the weight when the feed teeth have been moved to pad engaging position and again to release the weight at the end of a feeding stroke of the carriage, said device including a pawl movable into and out of effective lifting engagement with the teeth of a rack, said rack being integral with said weight.

3. Mechanism for feeding pads from the bottom of a pile contained in a magazine and through a throat at the outlet end of said magazine, comprising a reciprocable carriage, feed teeth pivotally mounted for free movement on said carriage and counter-weighted to urge the teeth to feeding position, means for reciprocating said carriage, a weight slidably mounted in juxtaposition with said throat to press together the leading edges of pads contained in the magazine, a lifting device, and means for operating said lifting device, said two means being synchronously timed to engage and lift the weight when the feed teeth have been moved to pad engaging position and again to release the weight at the end of a feeding stroke of the carriage, said device including a reciprocable pawl pivotally mounted for engagement with a rack formed integral with the said weight, the means for operating said device including a cam actuated lever for moving said pawl to and from an eifective weight lifting position, and a pawl enabling arm reciprocable under the influence of said lever, said arm yieldably bearing on said pawl for causing said pawl to engage said rack upon the initial movement of the pawl to said effective position.

4. A machine of the class described having a magazine for containing a plurality of sheets in stacked arrangement and formed with a feed throat at the outlet side thereof, which comprises a reciprocating carriage, means associated with said carriage and engaging the lowermost sheet in said stack for feeding said sheet through said throat, means for reciprocating said carriage, a weight mounted for sliding movement in said magazine, said weight bearing on the uppermost sheet contained in said magazine, a rack secured to said weight, a reciprocating pawl movable into and out of engagement with said rack for raising and releasing said weight, cam actuated means for rendering said pawl effective, said cam actuated means including a member yieldably bearing on said pawl and reciprocable under the influence thereof for periodically moving said pawl into effective lifting engagement with said rack, the means for reciprocating the carriage and the cam actuated means being synchronously timed.

5. A machine of the class described having a magazine for containing a plurality of sheets in stacked arrangement and formed with a feed throat at the outlet side thereof, which comprises a reciprocating carriage, means associated with said carriage and engaging the lowermost sheet in said stack for feeding said sheet through said throat, means for reciprocating said carriage, a weight.

mounted for sliding movement in said magazine, said weight bearing on the uppermost sheet contained in said magazine, a rack secured to said weight, a pawl movable into and out of engagement with said rack, a cam actuated lever pivotally supporting said pawl for reciprocating the pawl to and from effective weight raising position in synchronism with the feed stroke of said carriage, and an arm yieldably bearing on said pawl for resisting the movement of the pawl to said effective position, said arm causing said pawl to move into engagement with said rack upon the initial movement of said lever to said effective position, the means for reciprocating the carriage and the said cam being synchronously timed.

6. In a machine of the class described, a combination of a magazine for containing a pile of sheets, means to feed said sheets from the bottom of the pile, a weight resting on top of said pile, a rack connected with said weight, a pawl, means to move said pawl into engagement with said rack then to lift said rack to relieve the pressure of said weight and to release said pawl, and timing means to operate said pawl in synchronism with said feeding means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,441,278 Halvorsen Jan. 9, 1923 1,634,074 La Bombarde June 28, 1927 2,165,748 Elliott July 11, 1939 2,375,296 Ford May 8, 1945 

